out of the box NOW THAT I'M IN HEAVEN

And this, my friends, concludes our presentation for 2007. Peace to

you all.

I find this photo extremely intriguing but I am not getting the message. I feel very thick (maybe because of the hour or the New Year's Eve champagne), but ... the doll represents ... ?

That's quite a statement to see out the Old Year. Dolls and clowns, never liked either one very much, especially the bald ones with eyes like a Prozac Maiden. Great picture though.

Heaven on earth? or earth in heaven David? not so typical to your other work....an unpleasant feeling in this presentation, but well executed as forms colors and texture.

You! Floating along on a champaign high.LOL

 

Just kidding. I dunno if I should tell you what it represents. First, if you don't get anything from it, it didn't succeed with you, because art should elicit a response emotional or cerebral. And, second, if I do say something about it, I will have taken away your opportunity to respond spontaneously.

 

So, having said that, let me tell you this much. It started out as just some idea rolling around in my head. We had the cabbages as table decorations at several holiday dinners we hosted. So any fool would be interested in the wonderful lines and colors of these lousy tasting cruciferae as a photographic subject. And then the idea of cabbage patch doll popped up, and the rest is history.

 

Now one could get carried away here and expound on the doll's possible representations as humanity in general, or children, or maybe even angels or the souls of the dead. The cabbage might represent life with its complicated patterns, colors, and intermingled foliage and high and low points. One could go on to a number of different tortured allegorical interpretations. I have mine, and you shall either have to find some connection, or simply ignore this as the foolishness of an old man. But you looked, and that's all I can ask.

 

Looking forward to hearing more from you this year of twenty o eight as Charles Osgood says, and hoping you are not suffering too much from that bubbly last night.

I fear to admit this, but I grew up with two sisters. One older and one younger. We always got one trip to Toyland and to see Santa before Christmas.In those days there was not a Santa on every street corner and every mall. It was the single most exciting day after Christmas. And, in those days, most kids in poor and middle class families only got one major present like a toy, and everything else was boring crap like underpants and socks. (We're talking late forties, early fifties). One year I remember telling mom and Santa on this trip that I wanted a doll. A doll! Not a cap pistol with holster or a train, but a doll. Nobody said anything about it, but I'm convinced my mother was horrified and Santa probably was thinking into turning me over to some counselor for a serious look at my transgender or gay tendencies. Never got the doll either. But, as you can see, I have one now. Hah

Thanks for being an early visitor to my new year. Yes, it's a little different, but if I made New Year's resolutions, one would be to try and expand my photographic repertoire. So here I go.

Ah, I figured humor was well-represented here. It is, of course, well done and intriguing. What I didn't "get" was the title. So, a beheaded cabbage patch doll?

 

Ha ha!

 

Maybe it stands for the death of the "true" spirit of Christmas with the over commercialization. Works for me.

Upon reading your subject title I immediately thought of a satire that "the ONION" did on the JonBenet Ramsey story. If this is a taste of the spirit of things to come from the camera of David Meyer then I'd say we are all in for quite a treat in the future. I love strange and twisted so this is to my liking!

Now I'm getting you to make up your own interpretation. Just what I wanted. Or, perhaps, it's Everyman. Full of sorrow for that which has gone before and trepidation for that which will be.....

You don't do to many strange and twisted things by way of your images, but from what I hear, you would qualify to fit into my circle of aberrant and benevolent beings. That's a compliment.

Sometimes a photo is more about a gesture than a message.

 

This is one that doesn't stimulate me to think or interpret much.

 

It just hits me a certain way.

 

Plastic catching my eye. Ruffles.

 

I ignore most, not all, titles. I read but paid little attention to this one.

 

I was just talking to a friend last night about the old Twilight Zone episode called "The After Hours" where a woman gets stuck in a closed department store with mannequins that come alive.

 

Gut.

A question...

 

Why it is not possible to hang a bunny in your country? ( copy rights? )

 

It is good that you want to enlarge your photographic creation, but start it with a doll without a body...and BG that is similar to "clouds" ? what do you think my real conotation was? A bit gloomy for a new year.... ;-))

 

 

I'm not sure I understand what you are saying. If I read you correctly you are saying it doesn't do much for you. I'm okay with that, but I just didn't understand where you were going with the comment.

 

As for titles, I think they are very important. I hate untitled images. Part of that is because I really love words. I may not be the worlds greatest wordsmith, but I have a true appreciation for them. And a title allows us to merge our visual imagery with the written word. And sometimes they make beautiful music together. The photo had a kind of ethereal detachment to it and the cabbage has a sort of cloud like softness to it, thus my title. (I know you don't care about the title, but I thought I would explain a bit, since it also seems to have puzzled Rachel and you mentioned your disdain of titles.)

 

 

That was just a stupid joke, because a morbid person like me saw the bunny being hung as in execution. And actually I think there are still a couple of states that execute criminal by hanging, so that might not have been true. Dumb joke. Dumb joke. Dumb joke. SORRY

 

As for macabre, if you've looked at very many of my images, there are many that have a rather morbid side to them. That is just me, and I don't do it to offend anyone.

On the contrary. The image does a lot for me. It hits me in the gut. I was just trying to convey to Rachel, obviously not terribly clearly, that it didn't need to have a "message" or "interpretation." Sometimes/often, I don't think or care about the "meaning" of an image as much as just allowing it to do its visual thing. This was one of those. The eyes of a doll caught me and scared me a little and that was sufficient. I didn't think about it at the time, but I considered the ruffles like her dress. But just the visual of ruffles was sufficient to give it girliness and realizing it was cabbage gave it some humor. It didnt make me care about your motivations, intentions, or what you were trying to say. I'd prefer to see the cabbage as cabbage, as texture and swirls, not as metaphor. In this case, the title directed the metaphor toward a narrative direction and I was already experiencing a metaphor visually in the image.

Thanks for the explanation. I now understand what you are saying. And I know I feel that way many times about a piece of art. The deeper meanings might escape me (if there were any), but it doesn't make it a failure. I can still enjoy it for what it is.

Sometimes an image hits me strongly but on a level that seems to reside outside of my ability to articulate. This is one of them. I get a strong and rather disturbing sense as well as a black humour feel. I don't know why and maybe that's just as well.

Probably because the photographer transmitted his own disturbed thoughts and sense of black humor into the image. I'm good with that. Thanks

Happy New Year my friend i wish lots of good and extremely goods shots in 2008

thank You for your all comments under my pictures:)

Angelic. What a wide-eyed wonder! If I were there, I wouldn't blink either. I'm sure from the outside looking in, this looks like the random firing of neurons. Like all your entourage who has commented on this heavenly shot, I'm impressed and scratching my head. Plastic is eternal.

only a dude named David Meyer could come up with something like this. OK, so does it mean that people in Heave are all bald? This could also look like an abandoned toy amidst a coral reef. Dude, those blue eyes are seductive, I have to focus on the cabbage. Man, if this is what 2008 will be for you photographically, then I have to up my V8 rations. Cheers, Micheal

Thanks. I've enjoyed your work for quite sometime, and look forward to what you will serve up this year.

Yeah, it makes me scratch my head too. I can stare at this and get different reactions, but most of the time I see it as kind of a sinister image. Guess it all depends on one's psychological makeup, and we know I'm on the edge. I'm seeing a baby Stepford wife sort of thing.

Given my bald pate, I've got to hope all those in heaven are bald. I kind of thought you would like this, because it's approaching the degree of weirdness that is you (that's good weirdness, so don't get pissed). I'm not making any promises for the rest of the year. Is there any cabbage juice in V8? I hope not because I don't like cabbages.